The Ever Given’s owner is trying to limit some losses to $115 million of the $916 million Egypt wants – a legal gambit that may fall flat

The Ever Given’s owner is trying to limit some losses to $115 million of the $916 million Egypt wants – a legal gambit that may fall flat

The owner of the Ever Given has launched a legal effort to cap some claims against the ship at $115 million, a fraction of what Egypt is pursuing in damages after the ship blocked the Suez Canal.

The company is facing a claim of $916 million from Egyptian authorities, as well as further claims from other companies whose ships were delayed by the Ever Given's six-day grounding in March. 

A month has passed since the ship was freed from where it had been lodged across the canal “” but the ship never got far.

Soon after it was dislodged, the Suez Canal Authority impounded the ship and its cargo, holding them in a body of water along the canal called the Great Bitter Lake.

On April 8 law the firm HFW, acting for the ship's owner Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, set up an entity known as a limitation fund. Such funds are part of maritime law, governed by the International Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976, known as LLMC 76.

A spokesperson for HFW confirmed the move but declined to comment. 

The limitation fund is a pot from which claimants can take until it is exhausted. It does not apply to salvage claims “”